German cheesecake

As promised I am presenting you today my old-fashioned, German-style cheesecake recipe. It looked, smelt and tasted like the ones I am used to from home, so do not be afraid to try out the experiment with the home-made curd cheese that you need as an ingredient for this recipe. In Germany, we like to have our cakes with a cup of coffee in the afternoon but it goes equally well with whipped cream and fresh strawberries for dessert.

Dough:

300g flour

1 egg

70g sugar

1 pinch of salt

1 pack of fresh or dry yeast

150-200ml milk

80g butter

Cream dough:

750g Quark (if you do not have enough curd cheese at hand, substitute with whipped Philadelphia or low fat cottage cheese)

1) Pour flour into a bowl, form a small whole in the middle and prepare a little yeast dough in the whole by mixing the yeast with 2 tablespoons of lukewarm milk. Set aside for 10min and cover with a cloth.

2) Pour the butter, milk, egg, salt and sugar over the flour and thoroughly knead the dough with your hands until it is smooth and won’t stick to the bowl anymore. If it does, add a little more flour. Then set the dough aside for another 15min. Again, cover with a cloth.

3) Separate egg yolks from egg whites.

4) Now, whisk the egg whites stiff.

5) In a separate bowl, mix the Quark (curd cheese) together with the sugar, vanilla sugar and the egg yolks. In case you happen to have substituted the Quark with cottage cheese, blend the cream with your hand mixer on the highest level for over a minute in order to destroy the clumps.

6) Work the corn starch into the cream and then carefully add the stiff peak. The cream dough will be smooth and quite liquid.

7) With your hands, press the dough into a round baking pan, then pour the cream on top of it and place the cake into the preheated oven.

Baking instruction: 30-40 minutes at 350-400 degrees (180 degrees Celsius). If you feel that the cake needs longer, reduce the heat. You might risk to burn the bottom dough otherwise. In order to avoid cracks in the cake, switch off the oven and leave the cake inside for a few minutes. Let the cake cool off either inside the oven (with the stove door open) or on the counter. Take the baking pan off only after the cake has completely cooled off.